OKEMOS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A holiday favorite in Ingham County’s Williamstown Township has been shut down because the government doesn’t think it’s safe – or pleasing to the eye.

Cheryl Underwood, who lives on Damon Road, near Meridian & Haslett Roads, has been decorating the outside of her home with Halloween and Christmas decorations since the beginning of the pandemic. She says she does it for the joy and doesn’t accept donations.

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She said, “Our mindset is….We’re doing this for free so that people who don’t have money don’t have to feel guilty for not being able to donate…It all started during COVID. There was nowhere you could go during COVID to enjoy anything that was free and for some kids that was the first Santa that they ever experienced. We dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus and it was beautiful and it brought tears of joy to people’s eyes and it was really sad that a couple people can just trash it.”

Because of a few neighbors complaining, instead of having ghosts, witches and pumpkins at Halloween and Santa, Rudolph and lots of lights at Christmas, kids and adults showing up to her house this holiday season will be disappointed to find a sign that there will be no decorations this year. The sign (with Grinch artwork) reads “So sorry, no decorations because we received a ‘cease and desist order’ to end our CHRISTmas & holiday display! A neighbor complaint resulted in Williamstown Township Supervisor, Wanda Bloomquist subjectively labeling our display ‘blight.’”

Underwood received the cease and desist letter from Bloomquist back at the end of December of 2021 and as a result, her yard is dark and goblin-free this Halloween season and most likely it will also be Santa-free come Christmastime too.

Bloomquist said in the letter to Underwood last year that “the display and resulting steady stream of traffic in the evening has caused disruption for your neighbors, resulting in complaints being filled at the Township Hall. After reviewing the display myself and taking into account the issues raised by your neighbors, I have determined that aspects of the display are in conflict with certain township ordinances.”

She cites the traffic congestion on Damon Road as a serious pubic safety issue and deemed a public nuisance by Section 1 of the township’s blight control ordinance. Under the blight ordinance, a public nuisance is defined as “Whatever annoys, injures or endangers the safety, health, welfare, comfort or repose of the public; offends public decency or aesthetic sensibilities; interferes with, obstructs or renders dangerous any street, highway, navigable lake or stream; or in any way renders the public insecure in life or property is hereby declared to be a public nuisance. Public nuisances shall include, but not be limited to, whatever is forbidden by any provision of this ordinance. No person shall commit, create or maintain any public nuisance.”

Bloomquist also discusses parking on neighbors’ properties, off the edge of the road, resulting in rutting and muddy conditions. She says that it annoys the “comfort or repose of the public.” Additionally, she writes about the lighting display being in conflict with Section 2:12 of the zoning ordinance which calls for a maximum light trespass of 0.5 foot candles at the property line. She says, “This provision is intended to make sure that a minimal amount of light shines from one property onto the next.”

Last but not least, Bloomquist discusses in the letter the permitted uses in Rural Residential Zoning Districts. She says, “Modest seasonal displays are considered incidental to and customarily associated with one family detached dwelling units and are found throughout the township. Your display, however, regardless of how impressive it is, goes beyond what would be considered customarily incidental to a one family home.”

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In conclusion, Bloomquist says, “In consideration of the above ordinance violations, I request that you either cease the seasonal display or modify it substantially to bring it into compliance with the Blight Control Ordinance and Zoning Ordinance. This must be done at once, and certainly no later than ten days after receipt of this notice.”

Underwood’s holiday displays were put on the township meeting agenda yesterday for a scheduled five minute discussion. Before the meeting, Underwood had shared her story on Facebook which resulted in dozens of neighbors and community members showing up to support her. A commenter on her Facebook page said, “Since when can the township restrict your ability to decorate your own personal property.” Another supporter at the meeting said, “The joy will be taken away from hundreds and hundreds of kids that look forward to this.”

But not everyone feels the same way.

A letter was sent to Williamstown Township dated October 11, 2022, a day before the township meeting. The letter was sent anonymously from “Concerned residents of Damon Road” which said they choose their homes on the dead end road with no sidewalks because of the “peaceful, quiet and safe street with low traffic volume” and that because their neighbors have created and expanded their Halloween and Christmas displays to include large structures, animated characters, music, candy and beverages, it has resulted in “large volumes of traffic and parking on our street from October thru December.”

The concerned residents said they are not anti-Halloween or anti-Christmas as long as the displays are “nicely done” and adhere to township regulations. In the letter, they ask the Board to consider the safety implications because the volume of visitors and the traffic as the displays have brought in over 350 cars per night, usually between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. in the evening. This has resulted in cars parked on both sides of the road with one land down the center creating a traffic bottleneck. They state that “Damon Road is not designed to be a commercial area with literally thousands of cars coming for the Halloween and Christmas displays.”

When asked what her future plans are regarding her holiday displays, Underwood said that she is on pause. She said, “I’m taking a pause because at the end of the meeting the discussion ended up being that the board and the township supervisor were going to send me a letter stating that I need to get my neighbor’s approval in order to proceed.”

She said that she was strategizing and trying to come up with a solution but that it’s impossible to do so when the laws are subjective to those in power who she called the “decorator police.” Underwood said, “How many pumpkins can I have? What’s extravagant to you or minimal to you or me may not be to my neighbor or somebody else… so that is unattainable and subjective…You can’t do that, it’s just impossible.” She continued, “What’s pretty to me may not be pretty to you…How do you do that? How can you police that?”

Without a definitive edict from the township about what Underwood can and can’t do and what she can and can’t have in her yard, it’s impossible to know how to move forward. And who gets final approval? Is there an inspection process or a neighborhood vote? And even if she reduces the display, she can’t control the number of people who visit so how is that issue resolved?

Each holiday display takes about 200 hours to put together with Underwood and a friend working on the projects, each putting in at least 100 hours each. But it’s worth it. She does it for her community. She said about her neighbors, “Most of the people are wonderful people and I want everyone to know… these people are just fabulous but there’s just a couple of bad eggs. And that’s the way our world is.”

How will this all end? Underwood replied, “The only thing that I can see happening is that we pray that in two years that we elect somebody who likes Christmas decorations and somebody who has the common sense to implement the laws and the ordinances as they were intended.”

Bloomquist emailed back a response to Michigan News Source (MNS) about a way forward and she said, “The township has requested Ms. Underwood to engage with her neighbors for a solution that would eliminate the complaints and issues that we addressed in the letter. The invitation to appeal the decision and contact the township has been open since the letter went out.”

That leads one to ask – is this about the law or is it about pleasing a few neighbors? And how do you do that? One of the many neighbors who supports Underwood went to the meeting and asked why the township didn’t do more research and ask ALL of the neighbors how they felt about the situation. To find out more on the legal end of things, Michigan News Source reached out to the Meridian Township Police, who would have jurisdiction in this action, They said, to date, they have not issued any citations to Underwood for her display nor have they been called to the residence for any complaints from the neighbors.

If she was to continue with her holiday displays as they are in the past, their course of action would be to issue a citation at the request of Williamstown Township and any fines would be set by them. They would not take anyone to jail for a violation of a blight ordinance unless a judge issued a bench warrant.